Hell and Its Rivals

The idea of punishment after death—whereby the souls of the wicked are consigned to Hell (Gehenna, Gehinnom, or Jahannam)—emerged out of beliefs found across the Mediterranean, from ancient Egypt to Zoroastrian Persia, and became fundamental to the Abrahamic religions. Once Hell achieved doctrinal expression in the New Testament, the Talmud, and the Qur'an, thinkers began to question Hell’s eternity, and to consider possible alternatives—hell’s rivals. Some imagined outright escape, others periodic but temporary relief within the torments. One option, including Purgatory and, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the Middle State, was to consider the punishments to be temporary and purifying. Despite these moral and theological hesitations, the idea of Hell has remained a historical and theological force until the present.

In Hell and Its Rivals, Alan E. Bernstein examines an array of sources from within and beyond the three Abrahamic faiths—including theology, chronicles, legal charters, edifying tales, and narratives of near-death experiences—to analyze the origins and evolution of belief in Hell. Key social institutions, including slavery, capital punishment, and monarchy, also affected the afterlife beliefs of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Reflection on hell encouraged a stigmatization of "the other" that in turn emphasized the differences between these religions. Yet, despite these rivalries, each community proclaimed eternal punishment and answered related challenges to it in similar terms. For all that divided them, they agreed on the need for—and fact of—Hell.

Introduction

Part I. Foundations

1. Gregory the Great: Order in Chaos

2. Inner Death: Hell in the Conscience

3. The Punishments: Slavery, Torture, and Hell

Part II. Alternatives to Hell

4. Exceptions to Hell: Relief and Escape

5. Calibrated Justice and Purgatorial Fire

6. Visions: Rights to Souls

Part III. Hell in Abrahamic Religions

7. Rabbinic Judaism: One Fire, Two Fates

8. Byzantine Universalism: The Path Not Taken

9. Islam: The Mockers Mocked

Conclusion

Hell and Its Rivals

"In this important and impressive book, David M. Edelstein eschews the traditional mechanistic view of power transitions and puts politics front and center."—Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of The Prince of Darkness

Hell and Its Rivals

"Erudite and readable, Hell and Its Rivals is the crucial resource for those interested in the formation of the doctrine of Hell over late antiquity and the early medieval period. Alan E. Bernstein has a remarkable knowledge of the relevant textual history of the period and of the details of the texts with which he deals."—Philip C. Almond, University of Queensland, author of Afterlife: A History of Life after Death

Hell and Its Rivals

"With The Formation of Hell, Alan E. Bernstein established his reputation as a sophisticated historian of Hell. He is an authority I regularly turn to for questions about Hell, its sources, and its implications for society, piety, and culture. The appearance of Hell and Its Rivals, extending the time frame into the early and high Middle Ages, and encompassing Patristic, Byzantine, Rabbinic, and Islamic sources, is a welcome event."—Carol Zaleski, Smith College, author of Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times

Title Hell and Its Rivals

Subtitle Death and Retribution among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages

Alan E. Bernstein

Alan E. Bernstein is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Hell and Its Rivals: Death and Retribution among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Early Middle Ages and The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds, both from Cornell.